Manifest – Contrails

By: Luke Joseph

Destination unknown. That’s the best way to describe last Monday’s episode of “Manifest.” The focus in this episode is all about Captain Bill Daly (Frank Deal) who piloted Flight 828. Rather than being present with the passengers in the flashback scene, the audience is taken into the cockpit. Everything is running smoothly until out of nowhere a storm comes and they experience bad turbulence.

Back in the present Ben (Josh Dallas) is trying his best at giving Grace (Athena Karkanis) space, but it’s hard to do when he has to drop Cal (Jack Messina) back home. The two share the generic pleasantries and then Grace asks if it would be alright if Ben took Cal again tomorrow because she has something to take care of. Happy to spend more time with his son, he accepts only for Cal to tell Ben he’s going to be busy helping a man on the plane. That man turns out to be Captain Daly who calls Ben asking if they can meet because he believes Flight 828 wasn’t his fault and he has proof to verify his statement.

Daly takes Ben to the airport and passes him a binder that has all the official documents of Flight 828 on record. Ben thinks this to be wonderful, but Daly is about to reveal something to Ben. He takes Ben to a simulator were he inputs the flight conditions from the night the plane disappeared. However, the simulation doesn’t match with the actual flight the night 828 vanished. The storm is nowhere to be found and the flight itself is smooth. Daly tells Ben that the documents he holds were all cover-ups by the government. In addition to that big reveal it turns out the cover up didn’t begin after the day they arrived. It began on the day the plane disappeared.

Processing the new information he’s obtained Ben immediately gets to work and begins looking over every document trying to find the missing link. It leads to a meteorologist by the name of Dr. Roger Mencin (Bruce MacVittie) who’s field of study consisted of the position and date the plane disappeared. He was meant to testify on the planes disappearance but never had the opportunity because he withdrew which translates forced to retire early. Dr. Mencin confesses to Ben and Daly that he swore under oath not to speak about it again. Eventually though he gives in and explains about how for years no one ever knew that dark lightning existed. The night that Flight 828 disappeared his weather instruments had discovered the dark lightning. It’s a high energy atmospheric discharge that results in releasing ionizing radiation. With such a discovery he had planned to testify, but the Department of Defense had stepped in and forced him to withdraw. They also forced him to delete every piece of data he had collected on it. Thankfully, he had kept his backups and after Ben and Daly beg for his assistance he opts to help them out.

With the right documentation now obtained, Ben and Daly head back to the airport to try the simulation again. This time with the hope that it will show them what they need. Inputting the real data in they are greeted with the perfect storm. Even will all this time passed Daly does everything he did the night he flew flight 828. He tells Ben that “it came out of nowhere” and rather than flying over the lightning he flew through it, which is exactly what he’s about to do again. Unfortunately, the plane crashes which leaves Daly frustrated as ever. Ben thinks this is a good thing because they are on the right track but Daly remains desperate. He wants the truth so that he can clear his name. He’s also convinced that Fiona Clark (Francesca Faridany) is part of the whole conspiracy.

Elsewhere at Michaela’s apartment Michaela (Melissa Roxburgh) is happy to partake in babysitting duty with Cal breaks it gives her a break from Jared (J.R. Ramirez). Things are tense between them after they had slept together the night before. Gee, ya think? Jared approached her earlier at the Police Station seeming to be walking on sunshine though and not really grasping they did anything wrong because they are right together. He’s even ready to tell his Lourdes (Victoria Cartagena) about it, but Michaela pulls back claiming last night to be a mistake. It wasn’t a mistake when you two were pulling your pants down, but okay we get it now reality has set back in. Back in the present, bonding time between aunt and nephew is put on hold when Autumn (Shirley Rumierk) knocks on the door asking for help. She reveals to Michaela how she had run away in hopes of getting a new life. She explains how before she took off a woman by the name of Clarissa Ford had stolen her name and had gotten herself caught up in an array of crimes including identity theft. She requests that Michaela help to get her standing warrants off her back and Michaela agrees telling her she’ll see what she can do. Getting a call from Ben she excuses herself, but Autumn is most definitely eavesdropping when she hears Michaela mention a meteorologist. She also spots Michaela looking into Daly’s binder to get information that seems vital for Ben. Oh, this woman can’t be trusted and it’s proven when Autumn later is approached by a man on the street in a suit requesting she meet with the Major.

Upon leaving Daly at the airport Ben seeks out Fiona to reveal what they had learned from Mercin’s. However, Fiona isn’t buying it and believes that Daly is only doing this because he’s desperate to have his name cleared. The conversation is put on hold when Ben receives a call from Michaela telling him while she was at the precinct she was alerted to Mercin’s sudden death. Yup, he was definitely onto something. Fearing that Daly’s life is at risk Ben and Michaela rush to his apartment only to find he’s not there. What they do find though is Daly’s madness because like Ben he’s been recording and researching everything about Flight 828 including information on Fiona. Ben opens Daly’s laptop and finds the current weather data only for him to realize that Daly is done with the simulations and is preparing himself to take to the skies again.

Daly isn’t taking this flight alone because seated in the co-pilot’s seat is Fiona. She hadn’t come willingly as it seems he had kidnapped her and now he’s expecting her to reveal what she knows. Ben and Michaela get on the radio in hopes to reason with Daly, but he’s made his choice. They take off and even though Fiona begs Daly to turn back he continues to fly straight towards the storm. She begins to get hysterical saying how she doesn’t want to die and he assures her they aren’t going to be killed since they’re heading into the future. Has he gone absolutely mad or is he onto something? He’s about to do exactly what he did on Flight 828, but just as he’s about to go through a bright light flashes and is followed by the sound of an explosion.  The guards radio in how the threat has been neutralized.

Remember how the whole reason Grace is distancing herself from Ben is because she believes he brings more harm than good? Well, Grace when Ben told you he’s the only one who can protect Cal he actually meant it. After the whole ordeal with Dely, Ben and Michaela return back to her apartment and begin dissecting everything that happened. At first they believe Clark had been the mole since Ben had told her about the meteorologist. However, Michaela is soon putting two and two together and is convinced it’s actually Autumn. She’s right because while Ben and Michaela had been at the airport Autumn had used that time to break into Michaela’s apartment snap pictures from the binder and flip through Cal’s drawing book causing her to rip one page out.

Fear mirrors in both their eyes when they take into account that Autumn had been spending time with Cal all day. Immediately, Ben calls Grace to warn her, but it’s too late. Cal has been taken. The Holy Grail is gone.